More Than Anything
by chibi oniyuri
Summary: What would happen if Sarah got to live both paths the final confrontation created? Which would she pick in the end?
1. Chapter 1

Well, this is an interesting story that just popped into my head one day. What if Sarah managed to take both choices offered to her during the confrontation and chose which one she knew was best? Well, enough of my rambling.

I do not own Labyrinth or anything associated with it…well, the movie, if that counts. But anyway, this is not an official story because for that to happen, I'd have to own something, and I own nothing. Now that that's been said…..On with it!

More than anything, more than everything, she wished to begin anew.

"Jareth, this will never work. I know that I have caused you pain before, and I know I swore I'd never do it again, but what you're asking me to do…..I just can't!" Sarah cried out. Her heart was tearing her to pieces at the sight of his face, but she knew what it was that had to be done to fix this, and she knew that if she didn't ignore her heart and shred his now, things would never, ever be right between them. What were those words she'd heard in a movie so long ago? 'Hurt him to save him.' Well, that certainly applied here. And so, she hid her pain behind the façade of the heartless queen her reputation claimed her to be. 'At least, this once, they'll be right.'

"Before I go, I have one last request…one last wish. Reorder time for me one last time."

Jareth sighed and nodded. "Whatever you wish, Sarah. I'm tired of fighting you."

Sarah flinched but remained resolved. "Take me back to the last minutes of the thirteen hours. Take me back to the final confrontation."

Jareth stiffened, the question 'Why?' predominant in his body language. At Sarah's fierce expression, he resigned himself to not knowing, and gave a curt nod.

"Fine."

He turned away sharply, facing his throne. "Know that if you do anything drastic to change the future, and you decide you do not like it, I will not be able to fix it. Rewriting history is tedious enough without reordering 300 years of it. I will not offer this again."

"That's fine. I don't plan on calling on you again." She was glad he had turned to face the throne. He didn't see the tear falling from her eye. He didn't see the pain she was holding back. He didn't notice the regret with which she spouted that little lie. Even after living with her for 300 years, he still didn't know when she used her mask. Still didn't know that, for her at least, this was all an act.

"Well, shall we then?"

Jareth glanced over his shoulder at her, sighed, and held out his hand in a gesture that had become so familiar to her. A crystal formed in his palm, growing larger and larger with the power he put in it- after all, going back into the past required much magic. When he had gathered enough energy, he released the crystal.

Suddenly, the two monarchs were standing on a platform, bits of the Escher room floating around them. Sarah nearly lost it then. So, this was how her journey would end. 'No, not end,' her mind whispered. 'It's just beginning.'

With that thought, she turned to the Goblin King, offered him a sad smile, and began saying the fateful words.

"Give me the child."

Whatever Jareth had thought she decided to do here, this certainly had been farthest from his mind. His shock barely had time to register. Without him stopping and offering her gifts, she moved quite rapidly through the monologue. His eyes had just widened, his mouth had just formed the "O" of surprise, he was just beginning to reach for her, when she finished.

"You have no power over me."

The world slowly fell into chaos. The last thought Sarah had before blacking out was 'Dear sweetness, I hope I'm doing the right thing.'

* * *

Sarah shot out of bed abruptly. She gazed around her room, drawing comfort from the surroundings. There were her little Hoggle bookends, the stuffed Didymus. She sighed and thanked whoever was listening that what she had experienced was just a dream. She rolled over and snapped on the lamp next to her bed. Experience had taught her that it was better to have the light next to your bed than to depend on the light across the room. After all, you had to hop out of bed to turn off the switch, and that was more than she was willing to do in the cold winter nights. She walked over to the little vanity she had and slid open the drawer.

There it was. Labyrinth. Her greatest nightmare and her greatest dream lay within these pages. She sighed again, picking up the book and contemplating the dream. In the five years since she had defeated the Labyrinth, she had never had a dream about staying after. Plenty had occurred replaying key events, like what had happened after she ate the peach. She sat back to enjoy that memory for a bit, then snapped back to her original problem.

The dream she had had was interesting. Ruling by Jareth's side for over three hundred years was simply too bizarre to truly analyze. How had she lived that long? Why were things so cold between them? Why was she treating this like it was more than just a dream?

Sarah sat back on her bed, propping the pillow on the headboards and drawing the covers over her legs. She resigned herself to the fact that she was too contemplative to return to sleep. After sitting for what seemed like hours, lost in thought, she noticed that she had returned to bed with the book still in her hand.

'Well, there's nothing better to do, right? No point in laying here trying to sleep when my alarm will go off in an hour and a half. No point in sitting here dreaming either. Might as well.'

With these thoughts, Sarah set about reading her adolescent adventures once again.

* * *

It was forty-five minutes later when she was disturbed from her reading. Drawing herself out of the story took effort, and she was extremely displeased when nothing seemed to be immediately wrong. She was about to return to her book when the sound was repeated once again.

Sarah set the book down and crept to the door. Putting her head to the door, she could faintly hear the sharp clicks of boot heels resounding in the kitchen. Panic flew through her. Had Jareth returned to come take Toby away? Was he here for her? Was her dream about to come true?

Sarah threw open the door and raced down the steps, taking care to remain as silent as possible so as not to alert the intruder or to wake the slumbering. When she came to the kitchen doorway, she paused to catch her breath and rein in her courage. She was in for a shock when she came around the corner.

Standing in her kitchen was a gorgeous woman wearing the blackest of dresses. Her black hair hung freely down to her waist, curling towards the bottom. Her skin was pale, a sharp contrast to her dark clothing. Sarah must have made a noise of some sort, for the strange woman spun around quickly. Green eyes met green. They stood there in the kitchen, studying each other. Then Sarah broke the silence. "You're her, aren't you? The one from my dream? The Goblin Queen."

Well, that's all for now. I'll have the next chapter up ASAP. In the meantime, let an authoress know someone is actually reading her first written story, please. Au revoir


	2. Chapter 2

Standard disclaimers apply. I never have nor never will own Labyrinth or its characters. I'm just borrowing them on a temporary basis.

Chapter 2

The woman in black smiled. It wasn't a particularly menacing smile, Sarah noticed. In fact, she looked downright pleased.

"I see you are as intelligent as I remember," the lady said.

"Wait. How do you know me? And who are you? What are you doing in my kitchen at-" Sarah glanced at her watch, "-5:15 in the morning?"

"So many questions. How do you expect me to keep them all straight, let alone answer them, if you keep asking them?" When Sarah looked as though she would keep quiet, the lady continued. "I am the Goblin Queen, as you have guessed. However, I suppose I cannot have you running around calling me 'Your Majesty'. It would completely ruin my purpose of being here. So, call me…." The lady paused for a moment, as if actually thinking up a name on the spot. "Call me Ainé. I suppose that name is as good as any. I know you because everyone knows you. You are the legendary Sarah Williams, the one who defeated the King and destroyed his kingdom with six simple words. He never truly was the same after that, by the way. If you'd really like to know, he mopes. A lot. He doesn't even play with his goblins any more. And, I'm in your kitchen because I was rather hungry and thought I'd find something to eat before searching you out to speak with you."

Sarah puzzled over the words. There had been something in there that was slightly fishy. What was it? "Err…what would you like to eat? I could, possibly, fix you a sandwich or something. That's the best I can do right now, what with it being early and everyone being asleep and whatnot. Why would you need to speak with me?"

"A sandwich would be nice, thank you," Ainé replied, blatantly ignoring Sarah's question. "Preferably peanut butter and jelly. The Underground doesn't grow peanuts, I'm afraid, so I've missed out on that delightful little sin. I haven't had one in…goodness, over three hundred years!"

Sarah wisely decided to curb her questions until the visiting monarch had had her snack. After all, who could deny the lady a request as simple as a PBJ sandwich? "Well, which jelly? We have-" Sarah dipped into the fridge and resurfaced with a few jars. "-strawberry, grape, peach…." Sarah quickly placed that particular jar back in the fridge when she caught a glimpse of Ainé's disdainful face. "Right, veto the peach. I suppose that makes sense, what with Jare-"

"Don't say the name!"

"Eh?"

At Sarah's confused face, Ainé adopted an exasperated face. "Well, how do you think you summon someone? It has nothing to do with fanciful phrases, whatever you have been taught to believe. The power is in a name." She paused a moment, then added, "Grape will do just fine."

Sarah nodded numbly as she retrieved the proper ingredients and utensils to accomplish her task. This woman's moods changed as quickly as light traveled though the solar system. Sarah set about completing the monarch's sandwich and mutely handed it away. She would remain quiet for now, attempting to decipher the jumble of information she'd been given; after all, who knew when all of this might come in handy. So silent she did remain, while Ainé happily ate away her sandwich.

Several things happened at once that seemed to take away the happiness in the air of the kitchen. Sarah heard her father's alarm go off and tensed immediately. She knew that he rose easily and always came straight down for coffee. There was no escape for them. For Ainé, happiness faded when, as she was taking the last bite of that lovely sandwich, she heard the frantic owl-hoots of a familiar tenor and choked as the bite went down. Both turned to their companion and choked out, "We have to leave, NOW!"

That, however, was where the compromise ended. Sarah bolted for the backdoor and nearly tore it off its hinges in her haste to flee the kitchen. This abruptly ended when she saw a white owl fly for the door, which was promptly, albeit quietly, slammed on its beak. Ainé fared no better. She attempted to run up the stairs to seek shelter in Sarah's room and was nearly spotted by Sarah's father, Raymond. Thankfully her dark attire blended in with the surroundings, and she quickly backpedaled into the kitchen. Both ran for the opposite sides of the kitchen, seeking alternate modes of escape, and met rather forcefully in front of the coffee pot.

"What are we going to do?" Sarah squeaked out, panic evident in her face and voice.

"Take my hand!" When Sarah made no move to do as she was bid, Ainé grabbed a hand and concentrated. They disappeared out of the room just as the kitchen light turned on. Thankfully, Raymond was rather incoherent first thing in the morning, or he would have been very puzzled at the copious amounts of glitter that now lay on the counter and floor. As it was, he simply grabbed a mug, poured the coffee, and sat at the kitchen table, basking in the warmth and wakefulness caffeine in the form of liquid brought.

_Elsewhere in the house_

Sarah and Ainé reappeared in the room that this whole adventure had started in. Ainé immediately ran to the window, closing it and bringing down the shades before drawing the curtains closed as if her life depended on it. She quickly turned around and scanned the room. At the sight of the mirror, she panicked.

"Grab a blanket and throw it over the mirror," she whispered quickly. For once, Sarah ran off to do as she was told. She didn't exactly like being bossed around by people, but Ainé had managed to whisk her out of the kitchen, and this did seem to be rather important to her. Once these small details had been attended to, both girls visibly relaxed and collapsed on the bed, the little bit of adrenaline they had been running on leeching out of them. They were both content to just lay there for awhile. Finally, Sarah's curiosity overwhelmed her need to peacefully fall back asleep.

"So, why did you want to talk to me of all people?" Ainé recognized it as the question she had ignored earlier and realized she had no way out of it, really.

"Well," she replied slowly, "I had wished to take a…vacation…from ruling. The King did not agree with me and attempted to hold me against my will. I escaped by coming to the Aboveground, and," at this point her gaze moved to Sarah, "the only person in it that actually believed. It was my hope that you might be hospitable and allow me to take shelter here for a bit, until I feel the need to vacation dissipate. Is this agreeable with you?"

Sarah sat and contemplated for a bit. "Honestly, I don't see the problem in you having a vacation. Staying here might be a little trouble, but I'm sure I can find some way of allowing my parents to let you stay. We have to come up with a story, though. You can't be Ainé the Goblin Queen who decided to take a vacation in another world. That wouldn't do at all. I suppose you'll stay in here until we come up with a plausible story. That being said, I am rather tired, still. Would you mind if I went back to sleep? You could have the bed, if you happen to be tired, too. I have a rather comfortable sleeping bag that I've been looking for an excuse to slip into. "

When the Goblin Queen nodded her acquiescence, Sarah moved to her closet and pulled out a sleeping bag. She went to the dresser and pulled out some clothes. Turning, she handed them to Ainé, who took them and went into the closet. Sarah set about collecting a pillow for herself and settling into the bag. When Ainé returned, Sarah made a gasp of surprise.

"You know, if your hair was a bit shorter and you looked a bit younger, you would look exactly like me!"

Ainé laughed at that comment. She made no further reply as she climbed into bed and settled down. Both groaned when, ten minutes later, the alarm went off. Sarah hastily shut it off and clambered back into the bag. Meeting Ainé's inquisitive stare, Sarah shrugged.

"I like to wake up early to see the sunrise. It also makes sure I remain disciplined. But, as it's a Saturday and we just spent quite a bit of time panicking, I think I can let it slide this once, don't you agree?"

So, once again, both ladies settled down into their respective beds. And both managed to sleep far into the day, breaking habits they had had for as long as they could remember. The duo managed to sleep through a woman's dismayed screech at the sight of her dirty kitchen, but failed to remain asleep when said woman barged into Sarah's room, crying out about the injustice of little children and their fascination with shiny stuff. When they managed to sleepily clear their eyes, they realized the perilous position they were in and exchanged worried glances. Somehow, they just knew this wasn't going to go over well.


End file.
